The Couch Conversion
by notjaneausten
Summary: What if Amy's first meeting with the gang had been at Sheldon's apartment rather than at The Cheesecake Factory? How does she fit in with the group and more importantly - where will she sit? Disclaimer: All characters remain the property of Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady.


Sheldon got up to open the apartment door to see the newest member of his circle of friends standing nervously in the doorway.

"Good evening, Amy Farrah Fowler." He pulled the door open and stepped back to allow her entry into the apartment.

"Good evening, Dr. Cooper. It was very kind of you to invite me to share in your evening meal." Amy walked into the apartment a little hesitantly as she suddenly found herself the focus of attention as the rest of the group turned around to stare at her.

"Please, call me Sheldon." Sheldon took her overcoat and placed it over the back of his desk chair. "Allow me to introduce my friends to you. You've already met Howard and Raj; they were the two that were in the coffee shop with me on the day that we first met. Sitting next to Howard in the armchair is his girlfriend, Bernadette; she is currently working as a bio-chemist for a pharmaceuticals company." Sheldon indicated the diminutive blond snuggled beside Howard in the armchair, Raj was perched on a footstool at their side. "Over on the couch is my room-mate Leonard, and next to him; his girlfriend Penny. Penny lives across the hall from us." Both Leonard and Penny gave Amy a smile and a wave which Amy returned with a small smile of her own. Never having been part of any sort of social circle before, she was clearly a little overwhelmed by meeting a whole roomful of strangers that were close friends; she felt like she was the new girl joining a school in the middle of the year.

"Our dinner will be arriving soon, I took the liberty of ordering for you as you have often said that we share similar taste in food." Sheldon started walking over to his usual spot on the couch and noticed Amy still hovering near the door, looking as if she were prepared to bolt any second. "Oh, I nearly forgot!" He crossed over to where his older desk sat in the furthest corner of the room and pulled out a leather chair. Picking it up he placed it next to Leonard's end of the couch and with a look at Penny and a rather pointed look at the chair; she got the message and untangled herself from her boyfriend's arms.

"Oh no, please. I don't want to cause any disruption to your normal seating arrangements!" Amy grew distressed at the way that Sheldon was making his friend leave her comfortable spot on the couch to move into the leather chair.

"Amy! You are my guest and my Meemaw taught me to always offer a lady a comfortable seat. I nearly forgot! May I offer you a beverage?" Sheldon turned around to see that Amy was clearly distressed at the thought of intruding into what looked to be a comfortable evening before she arrived to upset everything.

"Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea, Sheldon. I don't want to be a nuisance; I mean, making your friend leave the couch like that…"

"Oh, don't worry about me Sweetie." Penny called out, "I'm comfortable wherever I sit, it's okay you take the middle seat; just remember Sheldon always sits on the end."

Raj leant over to whisper something in Howard's ear and the other man punched him lightly on the arm.

"What did he say, Howard?" Leonard asked, Raj suffered the despair of being unable to talk in a woman's presence unless he was riding on a pleasant buzz of alcohol.

"Just that he'd take the couch if she didn't want it."

"Howie!" Bernadette punched her boyfriend playfully in the arm as well.

"What? It was Raj that said it, not me!" Howard rubbed his arm, his little cutie might be small but she packed a powerful punch behind that cute, pixie like exterior.

"Social cretins, the lot of them." Sheldon shook his head and turned to ask Amy what her beverage of choice would be, only to find the door wide open and no sign of the lady in question. "Now look what you've done! Can't I even invite one normal person over for a pleasant meal without the rest of you acting like children in a playground?" Sheldon whipped his beige windbreaker from the hook beside the door and ran out of the apartment to look for Amy.

"Wow! Guess Doctor Whack-a-doodle really likes this one, huh?" Penny said as she looked around the room at the sea of surprised faces. "How long has he been seeing her again?"

"We set a dating profile up online for Sheldon, and she came up as his perfect match. We dragged him to a coffee shop to meet her…" Raj whispered something in Howard's ear and the other man nodded. "Okay, we had to bribe him with a dirty sock before he would actually agree to go…"

"That was four months ago, they've been texting or Skyping nearly every day since. This is the first time they've met face to face since then; I think." Leonard chimed in, and this time he was on the receiving end of a punch from Penny. "Ouch! What was that for?"

"You've kept this a secret for four months! Sheldon has a girlfriend and you didn't think to tell me?" Penny threw a cushion at Leonard and he brought his arms up to protect his face.

"Hey, glasses remember? She's not his girlfriend, as Sheldon would put it 'she's a girl and she's his friend; but she is not his 'girlfriend'."

"Well, he ran out of here pretty quickly once he realised that she'd escaped from you lunatics. I didn't even know Sheldon could move as fast as that."

"I guess we weren't all that welcoming to her, it must have been strange to her; walking into a roomful of strangers like that." Bernadette said softly, "It might have been better if Sheldon had introduced us in smaller groups, it might not have seem like she was walking into Arkham Asylum."

"Nice Batman reference, Bernie." Howard squeezed his girlfriend lightly and pressed a kiss to her cheek. He loved it when she got her characters right.

"Thanks, Howie."

"I'm gonna take a walk downstairs, see if Sheldon needs help finding her; he may want a ride over to her place. Bernie, you want to tag along, lend a little friendly feminine support?" Penny swung her legs off the chair and rose to her feet. She looked over at Bernadette, who agreed with a perky smile.

"Sure, Penny. Let me just freshen up a little." Bernadette slipped down the hallway to use the bathroom, being careful only to use the towel on the left; knowing that Sheldon didn't like anyone else using his towels that were kept on the right of the rack.

Sheldon ran down the four flights of stairs, panting harshly from the sudden exertion and burst through the lobby doors just in time to see Amy's solitary figure disappearing around the corner. It was raining now and he shivered as a droplet dripped from his hair and made its way down the back of his neck.

"Amy!" Sheldon called out as he jogged along the sidewalk, hoping to catch up with her before she got out of sight. Amy stopped walking at the sound of his voice and slowly turned around, waiting for him to catch up.

"Sheldon, please go back to your friends." Amy replied softly as she wrapped her arms around her waist and giving a slight shiver. Sheldon realised that she'd run out of the apartment without even collecting her coat and as a gentleman raised to treat womenfolk like the ladies that they all were; he immediately shrugged out of his jacket and draped it carefully over her shoulders.

"You're my friend, too. Please come back, we can just sit quietly and talk if it will make you feel more comfortable." Sheldon looked suddenly shy at the thought of having Amy sitting in his room; no other person was allowed in his room, it was his private sanctuary but it somehow didn't feel strange at all when he envisioned her sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Sheldon, you're getting very wet." Amy stated as she saw his hair plastered to his head with the rain and he wrapped his lean arms around his waist trying to keep warm.

"I'm not going back until you promise to return with me. I invited you over to partake in an evening meal with me and…well, I forgot it was Thai night until everyone else turned up. I had hoped that it would just be the two of us with Leonard and Penny. I wanted you to meet my friends but didn't want to spring them all on you like that." Sheldon shivered again and Amy stepped a little closer to his side, sharing her warmth now that she was cosily wrapped up in his windbreaker.

"Come on then, before you catch pneumonia." She conceded and Sheldon grinned happily back at her. They started walking back to the apartment and when they reached the lobby, Sheldon reached for the handle and held it open for Amy to step through first. She smiled in thanks and they started climbing up the stairs together, when they reached the landing Amy suddenly came to an abrupt halt and sat down at the top of the stairs.

"Amy, what is it?" Sheldon sat down next to her and saw Amy twisting her fingers in her lap. She looked over a little anxiously.

"What must they think of me, running out like that?" Sheldon slowly reached out a slim hand to place it over her twisting fingers, stilling their movements.

"Don't worry about what they will think. I told you that we can just sit quietly and talk, we don't even have to be in the same room as them. But, I do think that we need to go in at some point and dry off a little before we both come down with some deadly infection." Sheldon left his hand in place, gently rubbing his thumb in small circles on the back of her palm until he felt her relax.

Penny and Bernadette were just coming out of Sheldon's apartment when they saw the dripping couple sitting close together on the top step. Penny held her finger up to her lips and motioned excitedly to Bernadette when they saw Sheldon stand up and hold out his hand to assist Amy to her feet. Penny shoved Bernadette back into the apartment just as Sheldon was about to turn around. Penny knew that with his superior hearing he would have heard the door open and so made it look as though she and Bernadette were just crossing over from her own apartment.

"Oh hi Amy! Bernadette and I were just about to come out to look for you guys." Penny jangled her car keys as she gave Bernadette a swift jab in the ribs to take her eyes away from where Sheldon was still clasping Amy's hand.

"Yes, we were all kinda worried about you; us girls have to stick together you know." Bernadette stepped forward to pat Amy lightly on the arm, and then realised how wet the couple actually were. "Oh, you poor thing! You must be soaked to the skin! Penny, why don't you pop back to your apartment and see whether you have anything for Amy to change into? Sheldon, you are such a gentleman to give Amy your jacket like that." Bernadette raised her voice pointedly, hoping that Howard and the other guys would get the message; although Sheldon was a social nightmare in most areas, being a gentleman was not one of them.

"Thank you, Penny. But it's only really Amy's cardigan and blouse that got most of the damage. I can find her a t-shirt to wear while her own things dry out." Sheldon steered Amy gently around the two women and led her into the apartment.

"Did whack-a-doodle say that Amy could wear one of his t-shirts? Or am I in the middle of some crazy, overload of Rocky Road inspired dream?" Penny looked over at Bernadette who just shrugged.

"If you are, then I'm having the same one as you. Sheldon was actually holding her hand!"

"I know! And no one forced him, it's crazy right?"

"If you think that's crazy, then you need to know that I've just seen him give her his own towel!" Howard added quietly having left the armchair in order to join Penny and Bernadette in the doorway.

"Yeah, but what's more – he gave her Flash." Leonard added and the small group swung their heads around at the same time, each wearing the same slack jawed expression of shock. To have Sheldon offer someone the use of his personal towel was astounding enough but to then offer up his most beloved t-shirt as well, it was something that they just couldn't comprehend.

"Is dinner here yet?" Sheldon asked as he re-emerged from his bedroom; this time dressed in a clean blue thermal shirt with a light blue Superman shirt over the top.

"Um… yeah, I set it up on the table." Leonard gestured over to where the various bags were set out on the coffee table.

"Oh, good. Amy's fine, thank you for asking." Sheldon added pointedly, looking around the group. "I must admit I am a little disappointed in the lack of welcome that you have shown my guest, I'm considering giving you all a strike."

"Bernadette and I were just going out to look for her, doesn't that count for anything?" Penny walked over to drape herself back in the leather chair at Leonard's side as Bernadette and Howard cozied up in the armchair once more. Sheldon looked at where Raj had made himself comfortable in the middle of the couch and then turned around when he heard Amy's quiet footsteps approaching from where she had been changing in the bathroom. His Flash shirt dwarfed her small frame, covering her almost to her knees; and the sleeves draped down to her elbows revealing her delicate looking wrists and slender hands.

"Raj, please move so that Amy can have her spot back." Sheldon requested quietly but firmly. Raj's head came up at the almost commanding tone; the slight twang in Sheldon's voice coming through to show that he was not prepared to give way in this area.

"But…"

"No 'buts', Raj. Amy is my special guest and as such should be awarded the space at my side." Sheldon's eyes flashed with warning, and Raj grumbled as he gathered his plate and rose to his feet.

"Sheldon, I'll be fine on the footstool." Amy assured him as she went to take Raj's place next to Howard's armchair. Sheldon reached out his arm and gently took hold of her hand.

"Nonsense, Amy. Just sit in your spot and warm up a little while I prepare you a warm beverage. Chamomile with honey or Lemon Zinger?" Sheldon didn't let go of Amy's hand until she was properly situated on the couch.

"Chamomile, please." Amy smiled up at him and Sheldon gave her a koala face smile in return; before heading to the kitchen to prepare her drink.

"Awww…." Penny sniffed lightly and Leonard leant over to see what was wrong. "His koala smile…" Penny explained softly and Leonard just patted her leg in comfort.

"Here's your drink, Amy." Sheldon handed Amy her tea, in one of his favourite yellow mugs and if their fingers lingered as he transferred the mug no one commented. He sank down into seat beside her and leant forward to delve into the take out bags. He prepared a plate for Amy and then a plate for himself; dividing the portion equally between them. Amy smiled her thanks and Sheldon felt another smile creep across his own face in response.


End file.
